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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24273934">Sanctuary</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BananaDude64/pseuds/BananaDude64'>BananaDude64</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cats, Cults, Fun, Gen, Happy Ending, Mystery, Nature, Self-Discovery, Weird Plot Shit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 00:21:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,071</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24273934</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BananaDude64/pseuds/BananaDude64</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Elena is a full time college student and all time animal lover. She finds her self one day on campus, when a quirky girl recruits her at the local Cat Sanctuary. Elena joins up, but discovers there is more going on there than she was originally led to believe...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sanctuary</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Grass blades and fresh dew stained Phobos’ hooves as he cantered throughout the fields, Elena saddled securely on his back. The sun was still rising when they approached the nearby brook, babbling gently against itself. Phobos leaned his head down to drink some water and catch his breath from the early morning ride. Elena smoothly dismounted and grabbed herself a breakfast sandwich and thermos of hot coffee she had stored in his saddle earlier. Phobos neighed contentedly as the pair went through their daily morning routine. Shadows grew shallower as noon approached and the sun ascended higher into the sky. Just when Elena decided to head back to the stables, a turtle popped his head from the brook to greet these two strangers. Phobos looked over inquisitively, as Elena grabbed a leftover bit of lettuce and fed it to the turtle. He gratefully chomped down on it, then ducked his head back underwater and swam away.</p><p><br/>
“Alright Phobos, time to head back,” Elena said, remounting onto her noble steed and stroking his mane.</p><p><br/>
They rode back to the stables, where Elena grabbed her backpack, gave Phobos a goodbye kiss, and headed to campus. She arrived with some time to spare before her afternoons classes and decided to listen to some Pixies while enjoying the hot weather. As Elena was walking, she noticed a girl with long black hair and a dope snapback working at a table set up on the quad. She was holding flyers and talking to passerbys, when Elena caught her eye. The girl flagged her down just as Debaser started to play through Elena’s airpods. Mildly annoyed that her song was interrupted, she weighed the pros and cons of ignoring her or engaging with her. Deciding to go the polite route, she begrudgingly took one pod out of her ear as this very sweaty girl introduced herself.</p><p><br/>
“Hey my name’s Lacy, I’m just here trying to raise awareness for the animal welfare organization I work for, Sand Cat Rescue and Rehabilitation Sanctuary. With summer coming up and classes winding down, I thought maybe I could recruit some interns, would you be interested in that? It’s such an awesome place to work, and we even pay,” she said in what seemed like one rehearsed breath.</p><p><br/>
“Oh, no thanks, I’m not really interested, sorry,” Elena said, as she started to put her Airpod back in.</p><p><br/>
“Don’t you like animals though? These sand cats could really use some love this summer, and I can tell you’re an animal lover! You smell like you just left the farm,” Lacy blurted out, without much thinking.</p><p><br/>
Is this binche really smelling me right now? Elena thought self consciously. “Ok, yeah I’ll take a flyer and think about it, Lacy. I’ve got to go to class now, thank you,” Elena replied a little dismissively, as Lacy handed her a flyer.</p><p><br/>
She hastily got out of there and headed to her classes, taking the long way to avoid Lacy’s line of sight. Why do I always comment on how people smell... Lacy wondered. Classes went by quickly after that, and soon it was time for Elena to head back home. She stopped by the stables on the way, wanting to hang with Phobos just a little while before starting her homework. She placed her backpack down on a little stool by the stall, as she greeted him. Elena started half talking to him and half to herself about her weird interaction with that very enthusiastic cat sanctuary girl.</p><p><br/>
“...Ughh and she was so sweaty, Phobes, but she commented on how I smelled like a farmer,” Elena finished, just as Phobos shimmied his neck and accidently knocked Elena’s backpack on the ground. A few papers fell out, and as she went to pick them up, she noticed the flyer she had received lying on top of the stack. Phobos’ muzzle affectionately pushed into her neck just as she finished looking it over. Well, I guess I am looking for an internship... Am I really doing this? Elena decided to call tomorrow for an interview, or at least more information.</p><p><br/>
The next morning Elena woke up, and feeling bougie, decided to whip up a Greek frappe. With a little liquid motivation in her system, she called the number on the flyer. As the dial tone switched to the ringing tone, Elena briefly considered hanging up, but before she could commit, someone picked up.</p><p><br/>
“This is the Sand Cat Rescue and Rehabilitation Sanctuary, paws be upon you. This is Kyle speaking. Meow can I help you?” He answered.</p><p><br/>
“Um, hello,” Elena replied, not knowing what to say. “I’m calling to ask about your summer internships?” she continued.</p><p><br/>
“Oh dope, awesome ok yeah I can help you with that! You interested in working here?” Kyle replied back excitedly.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, I think I might be.” Elena answered.</p><p><br/>
“Would you maybe want to come down here for an interview? We’re wide open today!” Kyle inquired.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah that would be cool. I can do that. I’ll be over later,” Elena replied.</p><p><br/>
“Cool, I’ll see you then!” Kyle said, as he hung up the phone.</p><p><br/>
That was pretty weird, they didn’t even get my name. They must be desperate for help, I wonder why... Elena questioned to herself. She got ready, printed out a hastily made resume, and set out. All the while, convincing herself she’ll just see how this plays out.</p><p><br/>
Realizing she had no idea where to actually go, Kyle hadn’t given her the address, she googled the sanctuary name. They had an address and phone number listed, but there was only one page of search results, all of them praising the work that the Sanctuary does. If they’re so great, why are they flying so low under people’s radar? Elena thought to herself. With the address saved on her phone, she drove out, her “No baby on board; feel free to drive into me” bumper sticker reflecting the early morning’s sun’s rays.</p><p><br/>
The Sanctuary looked gorgeous from the outside. Big palm trees planted around the boundaries of the property gave the area a desert vibe, with wide open sandy spaces and metal fences closing the area in. The facilities itself looked top of the line, big and lavish white cement buildings, with a minimalist rectangular approach. A stand out in the secluded farmlands they were beholden to. Elena parked in the parking lot by the front, only a few cars scattered within it. Guess they really aren’t that busy right now, she concluded. An incredibly gorgeous guy in his early-mid twenties, with dark curly locks and a perfectly chiseled jawline, greeted her when she arrived at the front desk of the main building. The layout of the building was similar to that of a high end hotel in the tropics.</p><p><br/>
“Paws be upon,, my name’s Kyle, meow can I help you?” Kyle asked, Elena unsure if she should cringe or laugh at the fact that this guy regularly says “meow can I help you?” on the job instead of something normal. She chalked it up to maybe a job requirement, and composed herself.<br/>
“Hey, I was told about you guys by a recruiter. Lacy I think was her name?” Elena piped up.</p><p><br/>
“Lacy the... recruiter? Hmm, I hardly know her, I guess she got promoted. That’s awesome! You and I spoke on the phone earlier today right?” he asked Elena suddenly, already knowing the answer.</p><p><br/>
She looked down for a second at her Vans before she awkwardly responded, “Yeah, hey, my name’s Elena, it’s nice to meet you. So you said I could come by for an interview?”</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, yeah, totally. Just wait here and I’ll have the big shot himself come out and set you right up,” Kyle said. He then kind of leaned in closer and gestured to Elena to do the same. She did, and he whispered, “Just be cool, this guy is literally the coolest most nice guy in existence. His name is Brian, and he is truly something else. There’s just something about him. You’ll like everyone else too, hopefully,” he said as friendly as he could to this total stranger.</p><p><br/>
“Oh ok...” Elena whispered back. This place is weird as fuck. Kyle seems...interesting. Whatever I’m already here, I might as well get this over with and never come back to this miserable place. Just as she was committing to never come back, Lacy walked through the door.</p><p><br/>
“Paws be upon you Kyle,” she greeted Kyle from the door.</p><p><br/>
“And claw-so to you” Kyle replied.</p><p><br/>
Noticing Elena standing there, Lacy excitedly said, “Oh hey, you actually showed up! That’s awesome, to be honest I thought you were just trying to get out of there when you left!”</p><p><br/>
“I just had class coming up, sorry if it seemed that way,” Elena said somewhat genuinely. She had been trying to get out of there, but Lacy and Kyle seemed nice enough that she wanted to make a good impression, even if she was sure she wouldn’t be seeing them again.</p><p><br/>
A man in a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and khaki slacks approached the group at the front desk. He smiled widely at all of them, and then looked at Elena, holding his hand out. She matched his eye contact, and noticed that his eyes were empty, like there was no soul behind them. It was a little unnerving. Oh that’s Brian, Kyle wasn’t joking. She hesitantly took his hand and they shook.</p><p><br/>
“Paws be upon you, Kyle let me know that you’re interested in working here. That’s really great, I’m excited to see if you’d be a good fit. What’s your name?” Brian asked.</p><p><br/>
“Elena.” She answered flatly, trying to get a read on this guy. Lacy and Kyle started talking, as the other two began a walking tour/interview through the facility.</p><p><br/>
“Great well, let’s get started. So basically this job is going to require you to be up close and personal with our animals, as well as administrative duties and the company’s bookkeeping. Is that something you’d be interested in?” Brian asked, at a rapid fire pace.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, I’d be great at that stuff. You don’t want to see my resume or anything?” Elena asked, clearly weirded out that this interview was getting deep into it, way too fast.</p><p><br/>
“We’ll get down to all the nitty gritty stuff once you sign the NDA. Here’s my office, why don’t we step inside?” Brian asked, not really asking.</p><p><br/>
Fuck... Elena thought, as Brian escorted her in and closed the door, locking it behind him. Elena subconsciously checked for her phone, making sure it was within reach and readily accessible. Brian gestured to one of the chairs in front of his desk, and took a seat in the chair right behind it. Elena, already too far into this process to smoothly back out, took a seat as well. Brian shuffled around in one of the desk’s compartments, and whipped out a stapled packet. “Non-Disclosure Agreement for SCRARS Employment” it read on the cover. Ok, here we go. This dude is creepy as fuck. Ughhh I don’t even want to be hereeee. Brian flipped to the last page and slid the packet across the desk along with a pen down to Elena’s side. He gave the signature line three deliberate taps, and flashed an empty-eyed smile. In a moment that seemed to last an hour, Elena debated about walking out right then and there, or signing it to find out what the hell was going on at this place that required an NDA. Kyle and Lacy seemed ok, if not a little weird, and they probably had to sign one as well. Fuck it, illegal activities aren’t protected by an NDA, I can just report this if shit’s going down here. Elena cooly took the pen in hand and signed along the dotted line. Oh god, maybe I should’ve read it first, would he have even let me or would he have been weird about it? Oh well... no going back now.</p><p><br/>
“Great, with that out of the way, let’s get down to it Elena Lee,” Elena blinked a few times, she hadn’t mentioned her last name to anyone that she could recall. “I see that you’re a recent graduate with a degree in Applied Linguistics, think that’ll help you talk to our animals?” Brian laughed unapologetically at his own joke. Elena sat motionless, WHAT THE FUCK!? was all that ran through her head. I didn’t give him my resume yet, how could he know all that? She repeated the last part aloud, trying to remain calm.</p><p><br/>
“When Kyle let me know you were here I took a moment to research who was coming into my building, standard procedure. Really,” he insisted.</p><p>Fuck, I really hope he didn’t dig too deep on me. There’s a lot of stuff on the internet I would rather this strange man not see. The 2015 era-me comes to mind, she thought, her sense of privacy completely unfurling in the two seconds of conversation she had had with Brian.</p><p><br/>
Brian continued, “Now then, can you start today?” He stood up, Elena mirroring him while still in shock, and Brian reached out to shake her hand once more. She met his hand with her own, lacking any thought while still processing how fast this was all happening. “Kyle and Lacy can show you around, and give you some work to do for today. I would love to join in, but I have my own matters to attend to for the rest of the day.” The way he said that gave Elena the creeps. What kind of matters, hmm? She glanced over to the laptop in the corner, it was hard to make out from the distance, but it looked like only one program was open, ScheduleMaker.exe.</p><p><br/>
Elena, realizing now that it was the end of the interview, went for the door, unlocked it, and exited. Kyle and Lacy were standing right outside, as if they had been waiting the whole time for Elena to finish.</p><p><br/>
“Soooooo, how’d it go Elena!? Did you nail it?” Kyle blurted out excitedly. Is this guy always so excited about everything? she thought to herself.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, yeah, Brian had to have loved her, she seems...alright!” Lacy chimed in.</p><p><br/>
Excuse me? Elena half smiled, realizing she was being teased by this girl. “Yeah, I got the job. Really quickly actually, the interview was...very interesting,” she interjected. “Did y’all get hired just as fast?” She asked.</p><p><br/>
Kyle noticeably shifted slightly, and darted his eyes downward and then back up to Elena, “Yeah, pretty quick, if I’m honest. I was looking for a job for a while, and no one would hire me. Then Brian pretty much hired me right outta the gate, I thought it was a miracle,” he said, smiling, but there was a certain sadness Elena could sense from within him. He thought? As in past tense? She wondered.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, I also got the job really quickly, I didn’t think much of it at the time.” Lacy answered. “I guess it’s because I really wanted to work with the cats. The only other person that works here is Lynn, she’s cool too. She, like, takes care of all the plants and landscapes here. She is incredibly good at it.” she continued. “She’s probably around somewhere if you wanna walk and talk?” Lacy offered.</p><p><br/>
Elena and Kyle simultaneously nodded, and they walked around the facilities, making small talk and getting to know each other. Apparently while Elena was interviewed, Lacy and Kyle had become quick friends. The three of them got along well, very quickly too. Ok working with these two might not be sooo bad. Maybe they think something weird is going on too. They got to the first big open area, covered in sand, trees, and patches of various flowers and shrubbery. 6 cats were lounging about on wooden structures, all of them just napping in the warm sunlight. Elena couldn’t help but to just watch and smile. Oh my, they’re so flippin cute. I love them.<br/>
“Yeah, I could watch them all day... I really hate being up at the front area my whole shift, knowing all the real fun stuff is happening back here,” Kyle said, with some visible longing. Poor kid Elena thought. “Oh well, at least I’m here now and I get to hang out with you two cool cats,” he finished, clearly waiting for a reaction to his pun. There was none. And then Lacy finally let out a small chuckle, not entirely sure if it was from the pun or the following awkward silence.</p><p><br/>
“So Lynn probably isn’t far, let’s keep looking around. She’s maybe at the atrium,” Lacy said. They headed down the open concept hallway that connected all the different quadrants of the property, and passed a double door marked PRIVATE.</p><p><br/>
“Oh what’s in there?” Elena asked.</p><p><br/>
“Nothing probably, I’ve never been in there actually.” Kyle said.</p><p><br/>
“Me either.” Lacy chimed in.</p><p><br/>
“I’m pretty sure only Brian has the keys for it. Probably keeps his bodies down there or something, the creep,” a new voice stated from behind them. Elena turned around and saw a new short-haired girl amongst them.</p><p><br/>
“Paws be upon you,” Kyle and Lacy said in unison. Lacy continued, “This is Elena, the new bookkeeper here. She just started today.”</p><p><br/>
“New bookkeeper? Cool, what do you think about this place?” Lynn asked Elena.</p><p>“These guys are pretty nice,” Elena said referring to Kyle and Lacy. “Brian seems...interesting. I just met him but there’s a little something weird about him,” Elena said.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, I can see why you’d say that, dude’s like way too much of a soulless robot for a place that promises to Guide, Guard, and Groom sand cats.” Lynn interjected. Kyle shifted uncomfortably and then spoke up with a frantic look in his eyes “He knows too much about me too, he knew my two dwarf hamsters’ names somehow, Cinna and Buns. I almost quit once, but I think he threatened them? But no, he wouldn’t do that...He’s cool... Right Lacy?”</p><p><br/>
“No way! Brian is just a troll. He knew about my pet Sun Conure, Iago! He’s always asking about it, one time he joked about feeding it to the cats once when I asked if they were getting enough food,” Lacy said with a smile. “I think he just cares a lot about animals in general, like our pets and the cats here.”</p><p><br/>
“Nooooo, something weird is definitely going on here, maybe we can all figure it out. I didn’t like Brian from the start, but I needed the money after I was let go from my last job.” Lynn suggested.</p><p><br/>
“I’m in, this place has been giving me the chills ever since I heard about it. No offense Lacy,” Elena said.</p><p><br/>
Lynn just stares at Kyle and Lacy with a disappointed look, and sighs heavily, before giving them her thoughts on things around here. She felt confident now that Elena had joined the team, and could back her up since she thought Brian was weird as well.</p><p><br/>
“Look guys, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but...y’all are brainwashed yuppies. Brian and this company are terrible, and I feel like he only knows all that info about you guys for blackmail reasons. Just think about it for a second.”</p><p><br/>
“Woah...ok. Brian is an ok guy to me, but I’ll help you out. I don’t know if we’ll find anything though...,” Lacy said.</p><p><br/>
“Well, I don’t like being alone sooo, I’ll join you guys I guess,” Kyle volunteered, hesitantly.</p><p><br/>
“Hey Elena, do you think you could get access to Brian’s ledger or maybe the organization’s financial records? I think Brian is after something like money or power, he doesn’t seem like the type to actually give a crap about animal welfare. He just screams sociopath,” Lynn stated, not holding back anymore.</p><p><br/>
“Sure I guess? That seems like a reasonable thing to ask for as the new bookkeep. I really wanna get to the bottom of this. And help out the sand cats while we’re at it,” Elena added in.</p><p><br/>
They came up with a plan to see why and how Brian had information he could use to blackmail his employees, and to figure out if anything more devious was going on within the sanctuary. Elena headed straight for Brian’s office, rehearsing what she’d say in her head. Meanwhile Lynn, Kyle, and Lacy all resumed their usual jobs, albeit with ulterior motives. Lynn began watering and checking on plants near Brian’s office, within earshot of the conversation Elena and Brian were about to have. Kyle headed to the front, and began searching through the call logs and appointments Brian had had, looking for anything suspect. Lacy headed for the records room, and began searching for anything related to recruitment records, memos for what type of people they were looking out for, and any other pertinent information she could find.</p><p><br/>
Elena knocked at Brian’s door, slightly nervous despite asking for something well within reason. Brian answered, flashing what became his signature empty-eyed smile, and said, “Hey Elena, whatcha need? Just getting some work done in here, I’m swamped.” Elena took a quick glance around the room and noticed the same ScheduleMaker.exe open on his desktop, untouched from earlier. As well as a feather duster on his desk, slightly dirtied. Yeah, this binche sure is working hard, she reflected sarcastically in her head.</p><p><br/>
“Uh...paws be on..us, Brian! I need to get access to the org’s ledger and financial records. I want to get up to speed on all the bookkeeping I’ll be doing,” she answered after a moment. Brian put his hands on his hips and absentmindedly started nodding while looking slightly down and to the left. He looked back up, muttered in acknowledgment, and fetched some keys from his pocket. He bent down to one of his desk’s drawers and opened it with the key, taking out a few binders and putting them on the desk. Elena then noticed a safe in there as well, with a combination lock. Brian unlocked it, shuffled around till he found a small notebook Elena could just barely make out. He hesitated before placing it back and closing everything up. That seems suss. She wasn’t able to make out the combination from her angle though. Brian handed the stack to Elena and then gestured at the door. She left with a simple nod of her head. As she exited the room she noticed Lynn walking away from Brian’s office window. Lynn jerked her head towards the front of the building, signalling Elena to follow.</p><p><br/>
They went to the front , out of earshot from Brian, and shared their gathered intel. Elena showed her the binders of records she got and mentioned the safe to Lynn, despite not being able to see the code. Lynn, having a different angle from outside the office was able to get a better look at what Brian was doing.</p><p><br/>
“You guys didn’t talk much, but I still managed to get some useful info out of that. I saw when he started fumbling around in his things and he pulled out a black leather notebook, said ‘Ledger’ right on the front of it. Oh and guess what the creep’s combo is? Fuckin 04-20-69. I’m mad I didn’t just guess that,” Lynn said, filling in Elena on what she got from her side of that interaction.</p><p><br/>
Just then Kyle popped up from behind the front desk, apparently there the whole time. He had been digging through the files, contacts, and call logs stored beneath it. He gestured them over and began explaining what he had found. Apparently Brian had been making two phone calls one after the other every Wednesday, around 3pm, just before he went home for the day. Kyle had googled the names he saw and found out that they were employees of both the state’s congress and the state comptroller.</p><p><br/>
“Why would Brian be making those calls weekly?” Elena wondered aloud, “What’s he up to?”</p><p><br/>
“Maybe there’s something in the binders to fill us in? The comptroller is in charge of finances right? The answer might be in there...” Kyle suggested.</p><p><br/>
Elena whipped open the binder and started searching for any payments made around the same time as the calls. As she was skimming it over, Lacy came up to them, a single file in hand.</p><p><br/>
“Hey guys, I was looking over stuff and trying to find anything weird about the people SCRARS hired. And I remembered something weird Brian asked me to do. He wanted me to find someone who works in something called SEO-” Lacy said but was interrupted by Kyle.</p><p><br/>
“Search engine optimization? What would SCRARS need with that?” He asked.</p><p><br/>
“When I was looking up this company, I couldn’t find anything on it except for a few weird looking positive reviews,” Elena chimed in.</p><p><br/>
“I recommended this one guy to Brian and I overheard part of his interview. He mentioned that he had previously helped with PR departments to improve their image...maybe Brian hired him for the same?” Lacy mentioned.</p><p><br/>
“I’m sure there’s tons of stuff they’d want erased. This company is too squeaky clean for something suspicious not to be going on,” Lynn said.</p><p><br/>
“That’s not all though,” Lacy continued, “I realized all the demographic information they gave me... We only hire our staff with specific people. Usually college students, people who recently lost a job, or just people who care a lot about animals. I’m realizing all those are just people who are vulnerable.”</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, that applies to all of us right?” Lynn asked.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah...” Lacy answered.</p><p><br/>
“Um, moving on, let’s check out those financial records,” Elena suggested.</p><p><br/>
“Nothing is standing out. There’s something in here labeled ‘MISC. PMNTS’ that has a weekly autopay wired to what looks like a government account. Maybe it’s in his personal ledger? This shit is getting crazy...” she said.</p><p><br/>
“Well, we’re gonna have to get that book somehow... I can distract him and try to get him out of the office, while one of you goes and gets the ledger?” Kyle suggested.</p><p><br/>
“I’ll do it, I know that honkey’s code,” Elena volunteered.</p><p><br/>
Kyle smiled and nodded at Elena, and walked over to Brian’s office, and knocked on his door. Brian opened it, “Mr. Kyle, what can I do you for?” He said curiously.</p><p><br/>
“Oh nothing, please don’t do me Brian,” Kyle chuckled at his own risqué joke. “Hey so my break was coming up but I was wondering if we could go over my availability really quick for next week? Star Wars day is coming up on monday, and I wanted off. I drafted up a schedule that might work. It’s over at the reception desk,” and started heading back to the front as Lynn and Lacy headed over towards the atrium, Elena headed in the same direction but for the office.</p><p><br/>
Brian followed Kyle, while trying to close the door behind him, but Kyle slyly stuck his foot in the jam just in time to block the lock from latching. Fuckin, ouch... he thought to himself. They went up to reception and started talking there, buying Elena a few minutes to get what she could from his office. She pushed open on the slightly ajar door and entered Brian’s office. His computer desktop now had nothing open. Well, he’s gonna have to open up ScheduleMaker again if Kyle gets his way... It’s already 5pm, is that all this guy’s gotten done today? she wondered. She crept around behind his desk, and opened up the cabinet. She plugged 04-20-69 into the combo lock and the latch unclicked from within. She pulled on the handle, and found the journal labeled “Ledger” as well as the latest swimsuit edition of the Sports Illustrated. Note to self: Wash hands and throw up. She took the ledger and put it in her pockets. The top edge of the journal was visible above her pocket line. Also, when are women’s clothing companies going to design real pockets? She noticed a pair of keys on his desk and took them for good measure. Just as she closed the cabinet and stood up, Brian appeared at the doorway.</p><p><br/>
“I’m so sorry, I thought this was the bathroom...” Elena clumsily said. Because of the massive shitstain by the door, she thought to herself.</p><p><br/>
“Oh no problem, it’s down the hall and to the left, just before the doors marked private,” Brian said. Convenient.</p><p><br/>
Elena exited without another word, heading towards the atrium. A huge open room greeted her with tall palm trees, grass covered platforms and an indoor fountain with water canals interconnecting each corner of the room. Damn, this is really nice. Lynn and Lacy were already there awaiting her arrival.<br/>
“Soooo.... Did you get the ledger?” Asked Lynn.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, and a little something extra,” answered Elena, jingling the keys in her hand playfully.</p><p><br/>
“Oh niiiice, Belena,” Lacy said.</p><p><br/>
“Let’s just take a little peek,” Elena suggested.</p><p><br/>
The girls all gathered round and began looking at Brian’s personal ledger, and noticed that he was making payments every Wednesday as well. He also was taking in large payments bi-weekly outside of his income from him working there. The Wednesday payments were marked as withdrawn from the sand cats’ food and care budget, and it seemed as though he was wiring them to the comptroller. The money wired to Brian’s personal account appeared to be coming from all budgets for operations, albeit in tiny individual amounts.</p><p><br/>
“Holy shit, this guy’s making nearly 10,000 extra dollars every two weeks and no one noticed till now?” Lynn exclaimed.</p><p><br/>
“Did the last person not notice all of this missing money!?” Lacy asked, flabbergasted.</p><p><br/>
Kyle entered the atrium, completely unaware of what had just occurred. He walked over to the group and joined them by the fountain.</p><p><br/>
“Brian just went home for the day, we’re all clear to do our sneaky spy shit!” He informed them.</p><p><br/>
They caught him up on the corruption taking place, and what Elena had found out. He sat there for a brief moment, taking it all in. After a moment he stood up straight with an excited look on his face.</p><p><br/>
“Soooooooo, we're totally gonna take the keys Elena found and go down to Brian’s murder room riiigghtt?” He asked, looking at everyones’ faces for a moment.</p><p><br/>
“I gotchu, Kyle!” Lacy said enthusiastically as they engaged in their super secret bestest best friend handshake. Didn’t they just meet? When did they have time to make this up? Elena thought.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, I’m not going down there,” Lynn stated.</p><p><br/>
“I can keep lookout,” volunteered Lynn.</p><p><br/>
“I’ll go with you two,” Elena said, not wanting to miss out on the mystery.</p><p><br/>
They all headed to the front and grabbed walkies from the reception desk. Lynn stayed put and kept an eye on the parking lot, while the other three headed to the doors. They unlocked it, hairs on their arms raised in unison from the tension, and proceeded down stairs. It was an unfinished part of the building, with ducts and wires hanging from the fluorescent light ridden cemented ceilings, and cinder block walls painted white. Down the stairs it was just a narrow hallway with one door at the end. They proceeded cautiously down the hallway, luckily no cameras there to see them.</p><p><br/>
“Hmm, why is this so sketchy feeling? This is literally just a hallway,” Elena muttered aloud.</p><p><br/>
“I’m scared, but at the same time so excited. I feel... alive,” Kyle said.</p><p><br/>
They reached the door at the end of the hallway and grabbed the keys. They unlocked it, and pushed it open, Elena first, then Kyle and Lacy followed closely behind. The room was about the size of a nice office, with flickering fluorescent lights bathing it in an unsettling luminescence. File cabinets lined the floor, most of them empty and left open. There was a server rack hooked up to a desktop computer in the center of the room. A few unopened file cabinets remained in the back of the room. They were locked, but old and decrepit enough that Kyle was able to open them with a few tough tugs. The first file cabinet they unlocked contained one label, “Employee Information”, that looked like it had been recently added to. In it were manila folders, with names on them and papers within. Lacy and Elena looked over them, unfortunately there wasn’t enough room for Kyle to see clearly.</p><p><br/>
“Guys...These are our names,” Lacy stated with shock.</p><p><br/>
“Oh fuck, what’s in them?” Kyle asked anxiously.</p><p><br/>
Elena fingered through a folder, the one with her name on them. She saw papers about where she was born, where she went to school, pictures of her with her horse Phobos, and information on what she posted on the internet. All of it under a category labeled “Asset Weaknesses.” Elena had never felt so violated. The blood washed out of her face as she looked through each of their files, just looking for the category while respecting their privacy. She was unable to say anything, but managed to simply hand each of their respective files to them.</p><p><br/>
“What in the fuck...” Kyle said, his voice distant. “I...I guess we know what that SEO guy was up to... We should destroy these right? I bet that server over there is how they get ahold of all this info, all the spying. This is worse than finding a fucking body down here!”</p><p><br/>
They headed over to the server and Kyle turned it on. He noticed a label on the rack itself, “Property of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation”. He gestured them over and pointed at the label, and they all simultaneously realized why Brian was making weekly payments to the Government. Kyle began using the computer to see what this server was for, and to his surprise found a database, password protected. There was no way he was getting into that server, but they were all fairly certain it was how the information on them was collected.</p><p><br/>
“Do you think they know what this is being used for?” Lacy asked incredulously.</p><p><br/>
“I sure fucking hope not, because we have to report this to someone,” Kyle said.</p><p><br/>
Elena took out her phone, and started taking pictures of everything in the room, and just her own personal file. She saved them and tucked her phone back away. Just then the walkie crackled on, startling everyone in the room.</p><p><br/>
“What’s going on down there? You guys have been gone for a fuckin minute!” Lynn asked. Elena took the walkie in hand and pressed on the talk button.</p><p><br/>
“We just found the motherload of all the fucked up shit going on around here.”</p><p><br/>
“Well, what is it?” Lynn replied.</p><p><br/>
“You don’t want to know,” Elena said, but continued, “It’s information on all of us, stuff that definitely is not public, nor should be known at our fucking job. Brian somehow has a server from the government, and is using it’s database and resources to profile all of us.”</p><p><br/>
“Oh fuck.” Lynn said through the walkie.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, oh fuck,” Kyle said, taking the walkie from Elena.</p><p><br/>
They unplugged the server, not shutting down safely first.</p><p><br/>
“I know we’re trying to destroy this server, but I really hated doing that. Like to my core. I cringed so hard,” Kyle said, only half joking.</p><p><br/>
He then began systematically dismantling each server rack, and slammed them one by one on the floor by the empty cabinets. Elena picked up on what he was trying to do, and tipped one of the large cabinets onto the components. Loud crashes echoed through the cement room, as silicon, metal, and plastic flung outwards in all directions from beneath the cabinets. Pretty soon, all the racks were taken out, and all three of them began smashing each rack with the cabinets. Ballroom Blitz was playing in Elena’s head. The walkie crackled on once more.</p><p><br/>
“What in the hell is happening, is that you guys? The floor’s shaking!” Lynn said over the comms.</p><p><br/>
“We’re just fixing this issue...percussively,” Lacy said back.</p><p><br/>
“Ok, cuz it sounds...questionable,” Lynn replied.</p><p><br/>
“We’ll uhh clean up, Lynn, ok love you byeee!” Kyle said through the walkie feebly.</p><p><br/>
They smashed all the remaining racks, and shredded the paper files until they reached one file that stuck out to Elena. Hmm, the old bookkeeper, this could be helpful she thought to herself. Name: Cameron Amyson, it read. Elena skimmed the file until a certain section caught her eye. Reason for termination: Threat to the company’s assets and interests; Possible breaking of signed disclosure documents; Insubordination. She noticed a section for contact info and snapped a picture of it. Elena blinked a few times as she realized this girl was fired for way less than what they were up to, and started to freak out about what was going on around her. Oh god, oh fuck. Is this real life? This is crazy. Piles of destroyed computer and server parts surrounded her as a panic set in. Every moment lasting forever longer than the last, as if a single frame in a movie blurred slowly right into the next. She looked all around at the carnage created in their wake, the sounds of just a paper shredder’s monotonous whirring deafening in her skull, only to be outdone by her accelerating heart. The crackle of the walkie clicked on, temporarily snapping her out of it.</p><p><br/>
“You guys have been down there for 45 minutes, I think we’re clear, I’m gonna come down!” Lynn said through the walkie.</p><p><br/>
“Aight bet,” Lacy replied, grabbing the walkie.</p><p><br/>
The sound of Lynn’s footsteps echoing through the cement floor hallway outside was enough to pull Elena’s shaky feet back down to Earth, for good. She looked over at Lacy and Kyle, and gave them a single nod. They started to clean up the mess, wiping down everything they touched with their sleeves, and putting the room back together. Lynn arrived just as Elena’s was pushing an empty cabinet, with a heavy grunt, back into its original upright position.</p><p><br/>
“What in the fuck happened here?” Lynn asked.</p><p><br/>
The gang caught her up on what they had discovered, and what subsequently they hastily had decided to do about it. As they all exited the room and went back down the hallway to the stairs, Lynn’s face silently emoted all the reactions she was not able to voice. Lacy and Kyle, while recounting it to her, realized how insane the story was and could barely believe it themselves. Elena was silently watching them, she realized during the whole debacle that it was out of this world, she had never considered herself capable of being in a situation remotely like this. And then she realized there was still more to do. They rounded the corner from the stairs, exiting the doors marked Private and headed to the front. Clearing the slew of emotions mixed in her throat, she spoke up, “Guys, we need to turn Brian in. This guy is certifiable. I saw the previous bookkeeper’s information, I think she could help us.”</p><p><br/>
The three of them stood there motionless for a second, taking it all in. Standing up straighter, Kyle looked up at Elena, “I know we haven’t known each other too long, like one day basically... But this was awesome. I think we should see this through!”</p><p><br/>
“I’m in, let’s burn it to the ground...metaphorically, cuz there’s like cute cats and stuff here,” Lacy chimed in.</p><p><br/>
“I just wanna see that motherfucker behind bars. Actually I don’t want to see him ever again. Let’s get the old bookkeeper and call this in,” Lynn said, finalizing that the group was in this together behind Elena.</p><p><br/>
Elena was confused and humbled by the random show of support from these strangers and now apparently close friends. She called the number that was listed under Cameron’s contact info, the ringing in her ear made her suddenly aware that she could’ve just texted the person. But before she could dwell any more on it, a girl picked up.</p><p><br/>
“Hello?”</p><p><br/>
“Hey, you don’t know me but we need your help. I work at the Sand Cat Sanctuary, and we discovered some very unsettling things about it. I think you could help us, we have evidence that could take Brian and the company down,” Elena said, in what seemed like one rehearsed breath.</p><p><br/>
She forwarded over all the pics and info she had on the cult. Over the next few weeks a lot happened. First and foremost, after reviewing what had occured, Brian was arrested by a federal agent the next day, thanks to a connection Cam had apparently made during her tenure. The organization's little known leaders above Brian were found out and brought to justice as well. The gang themselves were investigated but testified and were found innocent and proved helpful in proving the culpability of SCRARS. Elena, as the bookkeeper, was placed in charge of fixing all the financial wrongdoings of the company, and since everyone above her was removed from power, she was the highest ranking member of SCARS. She decided to hire Cameron on again, and together they ran SCRARS squeaky clean and legal. All of this attention from the Feds warranted a ton of media coverage and donations poured in to help recover what was left. Elena decided to renovate the area and add a horse sanctuary as well, moving her horse Phobos onto the property and working with him everyday, starting a new great morning routine for herself. She even taught Cam how to ride, and they became very close friends. Lacy and Kyle remained bestest best friends, hung out every day, and started their own morning podcast show about their experiences in the CULT that was known as SCRARS. Lynn remained on and expanded the atrium, fully utilizing her green thumb to turn the sanctuary into the most ecologically awesome site in the world for all kinds of plants, trees, and insects. They all remained best friends, hanging out at every opportunity, until Kyle and Lacy tragically died on their shared 27th birthday, reasons unknown. Elena, Lynn, and Cam memorialized them by naming two sand cat best friends after them.</p><p>The End.</p>
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